Danger, Excitement, Exploration, and Life.

Journal Entry

Things happen in life. Let me rephrase that: things happen in life both gradually and all at once. It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on here; is been a long time since I’ve really had time (I still don’t, really). There was some combination of events, circumstances, and interactions that struck a note deep in my mind… It was like hearing a melody you have not heard since childhood; like the smell that haunts your memory of one of your old haunts; it was like seeing an old picture, and remembering everything like it happened today… So, without further ado, here is a poem that tells the truth:

A Note was Struck

A note was struck
Deep in my heart:
A beautiful sound;
A distant spark.

The note rang forth
In the depths of my mind,
Shaking the dust
Off my dusty old rhymes.

The gears did start
Their clunking again;
Each cog a part
That will portend.

Belts and pulleys
All spin and race
As ash and steam
Elucidate.

A pipe explodes!
The metal grates!
What once was cold
Is now ablaze!

No stopping now,
This steampunk mind;
The engine growls
With life and light.

Idley it sat
For far too long;
Cranked up at
The tune of a song!

A smell, a taste,
A sound and place:
Melody-laced
Life and faith!

With Christ in front,
Though danger’s about,
The ride is rough,
But faith resounds.

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So the following entries were made while I was house-sitting for a family I know. I got bored, so I decided to start making a “log book” so that they would know what happened while they were away. I’ll try to explain each entry so you’re not completely lost.

11-10-11 Exploration of Territory
16:30 – Came upon what seems to be headquarters of some type. We also found various hungry life forms in captivity. Scouts found traces of foul play. Will report in later, out.

The “headquarters” was the house I was house-sitting. The hungry life forms in captivity were chickens in their coop. The “foul play” was a little pun about the birds, though there was feathers, and they did tell me that a fox had gotten one.

17:45 – Life form nourishment was successful; signs of vagrant creatures roaming freely according to scouts, but too dark to tell. Grunts took to playing war games, while the veterans studied various other arts. Out.

The nourishment was the chicken feed. The vagrant creatures were chickens that were roaming free, but it was pitch black and impossible to find them. The grunts were my younger bothers who came over to play Call of Duty on our friend’s Playstation. I don’t remember who the veterans were, and what the “other arts” were.

23:53 – Troops hunkered down for the night in what appear to be sleeping quarters on the lower level. I slept in a small chamber on the upper level with a view of some of the outer areas. Must find vagrant life forms tomorrow. Out.

This one is pretty easy, everyone just went to bed.

11-11-11 Initial Conflict
09:35 – Troops were up and restless this morning. Set to feeding the creatures first thing. Located three vagrants mentioned by scouts. Corralled one, but the others had to be taken by force; placed all three in confinement with the others. The larder is looking low, returning to base for supplies; will be back later. Out.

Fed the chickens and found the ones that were lost. The larder was just food supplies. Base was my home.

20:00 – Returned with supplies, fed the creatures, and locked the place down. Preliminary survey of the inside areas did not take into account certain areas, particularly those with solid doors. Upon further investigation, some monstrosities had started to form! Plans are being laid out now for execution, will report in a few hours if possible, out.

The certain areas are rooms. Their house was not quite finished, so some of the rooms did not have doors yet. The monstrosities were piles of dirty clothes that were in some of the rooms. I was going to clean everything.

22:07 – Monstrosity has been destroyed, and the area is going through a sterilization process now. There seems to be a greater monstrosity in another sector, but it has been sealed off and should not cause any problems. Wend through and straightened supplies; played war games with troops for a bit and then went to bed. Out.

I cleaned up one entire room, and the sterilization process was sweeping and organization. The greater monstrosity was a bigger pile of clothes in another room, but I wasn’t going to worry about that one. It was behind a door. I organized their pantry and played a little bit of CoD with the boys.

11-12-11 Making Tracks
09:35 – Got up, fed the critters, and evaluated in-roads to this facility. After evaluation, we cleared a larger entrance and exit pathway before heading back to base for supplies. Out.

The in-roads were the pathways into the house; it was winter so I shoveled them.

22:00 – Returned to facility, took care of critters, and found what appeared to be predator tracks. Growing uneasy about the monstrosity on the lower level; devising traps to set around entrance to sector just in case. Only two more days until reinforcements arrive, hopefully we’ll be able to keep it that long. Gonna get some shut-eye, lot of patrols tomorrow. Out.

The predator tracks were moose tracks I believe. They might have been fox tracks, but I don’t remember. I wanted to leave some sort of barricade around the door, just for fun, so I was trying to get as much as I could done before they arrived. The “reinforcements” was the family that lived at the house. The “patrols” were work, school, and my home.

17:43 – Returned to facility to finish preparations for reinforcements. The second monstrosity is still sealed in the sector, but for how long we are not sure. I have personally seen to the additional defenses set up around the sector. I hope reinforcements arrive before anything happens. Out.

I stayed at their house and made sure everything was nice and clean for them. I made a literal barricade with as many toy guns as I could find pointing at the door. I also left some sort of scribbled note and caution signs up on the door as well.

When the family got home, they were all really happy, except for the one whose door I barricaded. This was the start of my idea of transcribing my days using different terms. It actually can take a lot of work and imagination to rework your day into a world of fantasy, but it can also be very fun!

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The crew boarded me vessel, the Nautilus II, no more than an hour after dinner. They were a bunch o’ the silliest looking greenhorns I ever laid eyes up! Was hard put to it, tryin’ to keep a straight face as I went over the rules of me ship. Only have myself and five other real crew-members worth mentioning, the others’ll be shark-bait before the mornin’s half done.

We shoved off after the preliminary talking to. It was looking to be a foggy, dangerous night. Could hardly see but a few feet with all the fog that’d set in that mornin’. A few clicks out, we were out o’ the fog and into a bright, sunlit evening. Took us a right long time to reach our destination, the dangerous waters near the ancient volcano, Mount Augustine. Had a young greenhorn sitting right in front of me captain’s window, had to tell ‘im to move. He sat up at the bow of the boat for close to an hour, mostly alone, enjoying the ocean it seemed. The sun was out, the waves reflecting it like a million brilliant stars in the sea; I hadn’t long to wonder why he was out there.

Upon arriving, we set about getting the crew ready to load up the ship with halibut. I had hoped to have a few more experienced bodies on board in case things went south, but ya play with what yer dealt. The crew began, and it wasn’t until around midnight we had the number I’d set. They were awful clumsy, like they’d ne’er held a rod before! I bet my landlubber of a granny could set and reel better than half those scallywags! I must admit, it was quite entertainin’ at times, watchin’ em fall and flop all over the deck…

Hit our limit and the crew went into the hold. Some slept, others only tried to sleep. Felt sorry for some of the poor old un’s, but there’s not much a capt’n can do on the sea. Without the Lord on board to stop the sea a churnin’, they’d have to weather the waves like any old sea dog.

Woke early the next morning, got the crew up as well. It was dark, with a shallow ceiling and 4 or so foot waves. It rocked us mighty fierce, made it difficult to find a decent place. We set off at a brisk pace for a good spot to drop the lines. Took me a couple tries, but finally happened on a venerable trove of the fish. It was the strangest sight I ever did see though, when that green crew got five lines tangled together on the first drop! I was astounded! One of the lines even ‘ad a fish, which the poor fellow lost in the confusion.

The crew was reeling them in quick, only had trouble with one greenhorn after all the others had met their quoata. He’d lost at least 5 baits to the fish and come up empty-handed every time! Fellow had awful luck fishing, didn’t seem to bug ‘im much though. The crew decided to ‘elp ‘im out and they decided to all try and set a hook fer the lad. Well no sooner had the let their lines down, then they all three had fish biting! The boy had his choice of the largest of three fish in the end, that being the one on his own pole.

After that, we set off for home. It took us about 2 to 3 hours to make it back. The skies looked threatening, but we didn’t meet a squall the whole time. Made it back with the crew not very much the worse off. We unloaded everything on the dock, and the new crew left. I wonder if they’ll ever be back, silly to think I may run into them again. It’s a vast ocean, but a small world, mayhaps our courses will cross someday. Well, it’s been a long day, time for some shut-eye…

End of Captain Milo Lupholt’s Log

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I awoke to the sound of alarms and sirens in the distant. It took me a moment to come around after sleeping so deep; rest never comes easy in my line of work. I examined my surroundings; it was then I realized the alarms were much closer than I had imagined in my stupor! I leaped to my feet, my mind struggling to keep up as I raced to escape.

Minutes later I burst out of the encampment and sought shelter in the Complex from the shadows. Arrived at the Complex at about 07:45 hours; made it in with a little trouble from the guard who wanted to see my identification. Even though I work at the Complex in exchange for supplies, they are still careful to check everyone. You never know when someone might go all wacko and compromise the security of the Complex.

A long day of moving equipment from one building to the next; preparing for the next onslaught of the beasts. I work in two separate but complementary factions within the Complex. One of these factions has me researching different defensive and offensive tactics to replace our existing system, currently a patchwork of whatever we had available. During my research, I found my room had been bugged. I removed the spy and returned to my duties.

All went smoothly until about 0300 hours. At about that time we had a major malfunction with the defense system; all systems went offline for a few moments. They quickly came back up, but it was difficult to say how much of the system had been damaged by the malfunction. A few hours later I left the Complex, hoping it would be intact for my return the next day.

On my way to Division Beta HQ, I stopped by a friendly camp and did some distance training. We had a new recruit joining us for the exercise; she did well, just needed some encouragement. I got to Beta HQ and received a quick briefing on some projects. I completed most of the projects and was further briefed on some long-term goals of my encampment.

I finally returned to my encampment, the alarms were off and the place was quiet. The Detox crew had done their job well, ridding the place of the shadows for the night. They are sure to return tomorrow, but I’m always one step ahead of them. The rest of my encampment division showed up finally after I gave the place a thumbs up. Gonna hit the sack soon, hopefully before the light is drained from the sky and the shadows return. I hate those shadows… Tomorrow can’t come soon enough! This is Mort Looseleaf, signing off.

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Today started much like all my other days. I woke up and knew the enemy was hot on my trail. The enemy must have drugged me the night before; marking me with a scent that any blind dog could follow. I entertained the thought of surrendering, letting the enemy take me; but I remembered my responsibility as the second mate of the crew. Motley as the crew is, I still love ‘em.

Raised myself and dashed across the cave entrance where I’d been, washed the scent off me-self. Prepared for the days expedition by suiting up, taking my effects in hand, and ate breakfast. Found a nest of eggs; had some other, not-so-fresh food as well. After breakfast, I made a list of areas to scavenge. I set off to find supplies, leaving the crew and first mate.

The first leg of my journey was no picnic, with boulders and beasts all over the place! Despite these hindrances, I arrived at the first scavenging area. Spent no more than eight hours there! Found a couple pearls, as well as some mangos, blueberries, and green dulse. While there, had a run-in with some pirates who spotted me a ways off and started firing! I returned fire and eventually managed to evade further conflict; made it out by the skin of me britches!

The second leg of my journey took me to a strange part of the island; not much for food, but lots of parts of old ships, tools, and equipment for building! Found some small tools for cracking open the clams, as the others would not last much longer. In addition to my small trove, I stumbled across a large piece of equipment for swabbing the deck. I was sure the first mate would appreciate it. Had very few run-ins, but was not alone! I caught sight of an old scallywag that used to be part of one o’ my crews. I left for the third leg of me journey.

The next two stashes I had to make were quick. The first area I ran in and searched for no more than 4 minutes. Saw a lass that once was in the same crew as I. Paid my respects and left the place. Arrived at the other area that was not that far off. It was at this location that I had to store a little bit of loot for later, making a deposit for future need.

I got word from a new friend about this time, via carrier pigeon. I made my way to a spot where we planned an impromptu meeting, though neither of us would see the other. She sat on one side of a wall, and I the other. I waited for her at first, almost dozing off in the heat of the day; but she showed at last. The conversation was cut short, much to our dismay, and I thus returned to camp.

Upon arriving, I checked for any sign of the enemy, but it appears the first mate and the crew had defended the camp well enough until the captain and reinforcements had arrived. They were outside working in the heat. I went out and did my leg of patrol duty; we’ve pushed the border to a 5 mile perimeter to date, looking up tomorrow. I got back, drenched in sweat, and so bathed under a cold waterfall.

We received an invite by a small, friendly crew to go to some sort of show with them. So we went. While on the way there, I had another faceless conversation with my new friend. Others in my company wondered who I was talking to, and so I told them and introduced them to the voice. We arrived and had a grand ol’ time with the crew. After the show we spent time going on about days long past, telling tales of adventure and singularity. As the day grew long I, and the part of my crew that went, returned to camp. T’will be a long night, as the watch grows long and the sun goes down; with light out of sight, the evil night and all its fright has begun.

End of Log

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I tried to enter a corrections facility with the intent of helping those inside draw nearer to Christ. Unfortunately, I was unable to enter because I forgot identification. Thus, I tried and failed to enter prison.